Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transportation system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for transportation of people and freight loads using electric vehicles (EVs) which have the capability of sharing electrical energy in a dynamic, flexible and bi-directional manner. The sharing is accomplished using a mechanical and electrical coupling system which can connect two or more vehicles into a cluster while they are in motion. Although the main objective of this invention is to increase the cruising range of EVs through collective energy sharing on the road, once these vehicles are connected for electrical energy sharing, it is also possible to share the driving responsibilities as well as to share or interchange passengers and cargo between the vehicles. As vehicles are connected into a cluster of combined vehicles for electrical energy sharing, it shortens the safe distance between vehicles greatly, resulting in a higher usage efficiency of the road and highway systems.
Background of the Invention
Currently, the rapid deployment of electric vehicles has been hampered by a lack of charging stations. The size of charging station infrastructure is much smaller than the current size of gas filling station infrastructure. As these two are competing for the same resources (real estate and customers), the larger vested interests held by the latter becomes a great inertia and obstacle for the former to overcome not to mention to overtake. For new investors interested in building more charging stations for potential electric vehicle owners, this presents a chicken and egg problem: “where fast charging station deployment require vehicles, but prospective vehicle owners want to see charging stations in the public before buying” CHAdeMO and SAE DC Fast Charging adoption possibilities—electric vehicle adoption prospects are hanging in the balance.
A second significant hindrance to mainstreaming electrical vehicles is the time required to charge the battery. The battery charging time is much longer than the gas tank filling time for an amount of equivalent energy. Proposed and attempted solutions include: fast charging technology, battery swap stations, dual mode and range extending plug-in hybrids and dual-mode vehicles.
The current fast charging technologies have not proven fast enough to compete in the marketplace. Implementation of further faster charging technologies coupled with the increasing demand for electric vehicle's is raising grave concerns about placing additional strain on the existing electrical grid infrastructures. Other deterrents to the proliferation of fast charging technologies include: fragmentation in emerging charging (fast charger format wars in both the physical plug/receptacle, electrical voltages and maximum current allowed), lack of universal designs and adaptations, and the quick drain of the battery life when a fast charge is repeatedly applied. Different charging standards and different charging formats have emerged causing some incompatibility among charging stations. The following articles which discuss how this fragmentation poses harm to electric vehicle consumers are hereby incorporated by reference: Multi-Protocol Stations Could Resolve Fast Charging Standards War and One Size Fits All: A Combo Plug That Can Handle Fast Charging.
As discussed in Standardized Electric-Vehicle Battery Swapping Won't Happen: Here's Why which is hereby incorporated by reference, the battery swap concept is an impractical solution given proprietary technologies, sizes and weights, and the difficulty in removing battery packs. These all converge to hamper efforts to seriously develop a wide-scale battery swapping industry.
The dual mode (i.e. Puget Pullway or Qwiklane) entails electric vehicles capable of sharing power sources with other electric train- or subway-style rooftop or road-side pickup in a special electrified lane including magnetic-induction pickup embedded in the road surface of that special electrified lane. This also requires an equally massive investment in both the road electric supply infrastructure as well as new vehicle designed with duplication of equipment. Wired (e.g., rooftop) pickup and wireless (magnetic inductive) pickup require massively high cost infrastructure not yet in place and construction is disruptive (especially magnetic inductive pickup embedded in road surface, it is also subjective to road erosion). Vehicles cannot expect to rely on this technology to go anywhere like conventional vehicles, hence vehicles using such modes are configured with both pickup devices and conventional fuel engines or large batteries. Hence they are called dual mode vehicles. Also, unlike tracked vehicles such as subways, the wireless magnetic inductive pickup mode offers no mechanical guidance (track) function for automatic driverless operations and no extra mechanical help under slippery road conditions.